EDITION 728
27 AUGUST 2018

As another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. This newsletter is sent to 50,000+ subscribers each Monday. Please share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends so they can subscribe, learn and engage. I'd be very grateful if you did.

1. How to give more – one person at a time. What would the world be like if everyone tried to give more than he or she took? People would change. It is difficult for a healthy person to keep receiving from others without giving something back. Out of abundance comes generosity. [READ MORE]
    
2. Can a lack of sleep make you fat? A study in Sweden has shown how a lack of sleep can make your body store extra fat and break down muscle. Jonathan Cedernaes, an author of the study, published in Science Advances, said it helped to explain why insomniacs and shift workers are more likely to become overweight or suffer from type 2 diabetes. A lack of sleep appears to restrict hormones that maintain muscles and increase levels of cortisol, which encourages fat storage. New Scientist.
    
3. Bluffer’s Guide to Brexit. Two years on from Leave’s narrow victory in the Brexit referendum and polls show that a significant number of people are still undecided about whether Brexit will end up being good for the UK or not. Obviously Brexit hasn’t happened yet, but some of the uncertainty is due to the confusion sown by a debate that has done little to move on from the Punch-and-Judy aspects of the referendum campaign. Boris Starling’s Bluffer’s Guide to Brexit is a light-hearted guide to the topic. It has its flaws but the book does an excellent job, covering the main points in an entertaining way. WGM
    
4. Take honey, not antibiotics. New advice from Public Health England advises patients with coughs or colds to self-medicate with honey, before they consider going to their GPs. The advice is intended to reduce the amount of antibiotics being prescribed, amid fears that overuse of the drugs is leading bacteria to build up resistance to them. Antibiotics help little with cold symptoms. The Times
    
5. Digitally weary users switch to 'dumb' phones.Sales of “dumb phones” – basic handsets that are not connected to the internet, and allow the user only to make calls and send texts – are on the rise as a growing number of consumers seek some respite from the digital world. Sales of the phones increased by as much as 5% last year. By contrast, those of smartphones rose only 2%. The Independent
    
6. There is no safe level of alcohol consumption. A global study published in The Lancet concludes that there is no such thing as a safe level of alcohol intake. While the team behind the Global Burden of Disease study – which looked at data from 195 countries – admitted there was a positive impact on heart disease from mild drinking, they said cancer risks outweighed this benefit. The Observer
    
7. One-third of 'bobbies on the beat' have been axed. One in three 'bobbies on the beat' have been axed in just three years as violent crime has surged. More than 7,000 traditional neighbourhood police officers in England and Wales have been reassigned to other duties or left jobs altogether since March 2015. A village in Somerset has hired a security firm to patrol late at night because of a lack of officers. The Sunday Times
    
8. Love Island helps drive a surge in male skincare sales. The success of the Love Island series has helped drive surge in sales of men's skincare products. The latest season of ITV’s reality show has been credited as powering a 16% sales surge among such products in the 12 weeks to 12 August. "Love Island not only tugged on shoppers’ heartstrings but also their purse strings." The Guardian
    
9. Extreme weather to push food prices up 5%. This year’s unusually cold late winter – and the hottest summer since 1976 – will cause food prices to rise by 5% over the coming months, consultancy firm CEBR has estimated. The wholesale price of some vegetables, including carrots, is already up 80% – but the firm says the full impact could be as much as £7 a month more per household. BBC
    
10. The bottom line. With 11,307 students taking the exam this year, PE is a more popular A level than French (8,713 students). Chinese has replaced German as the third most-studied language at A level. Daily Mail